The Undertones were getting teenage kicks and SLF were snarling about suspect devices, but while U2’s sound was equally jagged and hormonal, their themes were already leaning toward metaphysical, if not existentialist.
Currently touring their fifth record Saturday Nights And Sunday Mornings, COUNTING CROWS singer Adam Duritz speaks to Edwin McFee about Teenage Kicks, porno flicks and his love for Ireland.
Everywhere I Go The Kids Want To Rock. Trouble is, they’re turning in droves to punk-pop-by-numbers bands like Blink 182, Limp Bizkit, Ween, and now Wheatus, for teenage kicks.
ELVIS PRESLEY was so lonely he could die, and he did. Sid Vicious self-destructed, his way. But The Undertones, they just wanted to get teenage kicks all through the night. Now, tell me, which of those epitaphs would you prefer?
With a growing reputation for exuberant live shows that has seen them banned from no fewer than four London venues and rumours that they ve turned down a #1 million record deal, symposium are not your orthodox wannabes, as john walshe found out.
Derry punk legends The Undertones sat down with Stuart Clark in the Hot Press Chatroom for a great interview packed with anecdotes, jokes and hilarious impressions.
THE UNDERTONES have played a series of triumphant gigs since reforming. GEORGE BYRNE met the Derry punk legends, now augmented by Today FM producer Paul McLoone on vocals
It's gigs ahoy at Drogheda's new Star* venue this month, with The Undertones as well as Jerry Fish & The Mudbug Club, Mickey Harte and Shirley Valentine starring Mary McEvoy
John O’Neill of legendary northern rockers The Undertones talks to Colin Carberry about the creation of their most famous hits, becoming godfathers to a new generation of garage rock heroes, and why the band won’t be happy until they’ve written a multi-million selling album.
1977 went straight to No. 1 in the UK and spawned four hit singles. By the time the group came to record the follow-up, Nu-clear Sounds, they were still only 20.
For under-18s, gaining entry to concerts in licensed venues is a constant problem. But the regular BLAST gigs at Dublin's Temple Bar Music Centre provide a solution: twice a month, up-and coming bands play afternoon shows to a teenage crowd in a venue serving nothing stronger than water. NIALL STANAGE reports.
I’d always have said that Irish people were good at huddling. Our history and our climate, not to mention the controlling influence of the Roman Catholic Church, had tended to give us an inward-looking aspect. We had a thing about bars, matter a damn how dark or gloomy they might be. What we wanted, it seemed, was good place to whisper and to hide.
Stuart Clark – himself a black belt in origami – discovers how The Ramones and kickboxing chinese detectives have helped Ash to overcome their sordid heavy metal past and become Top of the Chops.
To mark the occasion of the release of a near definitive punk compilation, GEORGE BYRNE fondly recalls the days when pogo was go-go and gabba gabba was hey.
And that s just the band! Galway s finest, The Stunning, take time out from sticking pins in themselves as their debut album Paradise In The Picturehouse finds itself perched atop the Irish charts to explain the secret of their success to an attentive Michael O Hara, who undergoes a road to Damascus experience en route.
It is 15 years, almost to the day, since sound engineer JOE O'HERLIHY did his first gig with U2. SIOBHÁN LONG profiles the man with the longest beard in rock'n'roll (well, nearly) . . .
It’s all about broken down tour buses, Alan Partridge, high speed collisions, Moby, broken ribs, Mina Suvari, MTV stars and David Bowie as Ash launch a sonic assault on America. So riddle me this: can Ireland’s hardest-working rock’n’roll outfit crack the big one?
A special report on the arts in Northern Ireland which is alive and rocking with the whole gamut of cultural activity. Here James Elliott and Margaret F. Grundy give the lowdown on the province’s artistic and creative hub.
The stage is well set for the entrance of Kanye West, who seems to have made the transition from producer to star performer with few growing pains. Having crafted beats for the likes of Jay Z and Alicia Keys, the Chicago native’s debut album College Dropout has lead to his new role behind the mic becoming a very successful one indeed.
The Undertones celebrate the 30th anniversary of their ‘Teenage Kicks’ classic with a limited-edition vinyl reproduction of their Good Vibrations four-tracker.
IT'S BEEN a bit grim up North since Ash became chart regulars. True, The Divine Comedy have made the top 30 a better, more decent place with their pop whimsy, but in terms of cheesegrater riffs there's been little to float one's boat.
As is often the case when bands have a whole host of new material they're itching to try out, the crowd become slightly restless midway through the evening. The Meltdown material sounds great, but there's no getting around the fact that we've come to hear the old favourites, and the band know it.
Defiantly working class and staunchly political, The Blades stood apart from almost every other Dublin outfit that stalked the over-blown 1980’s rawk landscape.
Any day now a hombre called Padre Alessio Parente will arrive on these shores to whip up support for the canonisation of an Italian madman who called himself "Padre Pio."
PHIL KIERAN is a man of many talents producer, promoter, DJ, collaborator. Here, he talks about why the idea of a new Belfast scene is bollocks , teenage kicks and Drumcree!
In the new Hot Press, Peter Murphy picks his 20 highlights from the last 35 years of home-grown alternative culture (in strictly chronological order!). Take a look and then have your say on the indie moments that rocked in your lifetime...
30,000 people, loads of A-list stars, four stages on Fairyhouse Racecourse. Yes, we're talking about WITNNESS. KIM PORCELLI reviews the biggest festival of the summer.
